Fax From Sarajevo is a powerful and moving work, but it suffers from a couple of flaws. First of all, It would have been nice to have more historical context. Why were the Serbs so ruthless in their assault? Why was the UN acting worse than useless? (After one escape attempt through Serbian gunfire, the Rustemagics run into a UN blockade that makes them turn back towards the city) And what happened to Sarajevo after they left? None of those questions are adequately answered.

The second problem is that Kupert, who once wrote comics like Sgt. Rock and Tarzan, tries to portray Rustemagic's story in the same overblownpulpy style as his earlier work. While the siege of Sarajevo was certainly a horrible time, prose like

Despite these flaws, Fax From Sarajevo is still a very good work. I recommend it for its description of a time and place that most of us Americans paid little attention to, as well as for the serious questions it raises on the purpose and effectiveness of the United Nations.